BARRINGTON -- After a long week of tournament soccer, things came to a happy ending in just 46 minutes for Streamwood.

In just its second year at the high-profile Barrington Classic, the Sabres lifted the trophy after a weather-shortened 1-0 victory over Mt. Carmel on Saturday evening at Barrington Community Stadium.

Tournament and game officials, along with both sides and their faithful followings, attempted to outwait the constant Thor Guard warnings for close to 90 minutes before surrending for good.

"We were prepared to go back on, but the longer it went, the tougher it would have been for everyone to warm-up, play, and maybe be delayed again," said Sabres manager, Matt Polovin. "Obviously for us, we're happy with the result we came here to try and get.

"It had been a very good week of soccer for us, with us putting the icing on the cake with this win over a very good opponent.

"Scoring (11) goals, while giving up just one to advance into the final was a nice accomplishment -- really helps set us up for the start of the PepsiCo Showdown next weekend."

To recap, the Sabres opened tournament pool play with a 5-0 victory over Conant, followed by a hard-fought 2-1 triumph against Marmion, which is led by former Streamwood star and assistant coach, Jimmy Romano, who now is in charge of the Cadets program.

Polovin's men secured their spot in the final after an Alex Chavez double led the Sabres to a 4-1 win over Boylan.

"I have a lot of confidence in our team, especially our backline, even if they're so young," offered senior Jesus Limon, who bagged the eventual game-winner five minutes before the break.

The group of which Limon speaks of is led by sophomore Jose Ibarra, who is clearly one of the top centerbacks in the state. The lone senior, two-year starter Michael Rubio, was also sharp this week. The veteran was assertive in his tackles and interceptions while displaying a nice touch with balls out of the back to jumpstart the Sabres attack.

Ibarra is silky smooth on the ball, which translates to a high percentage rate of completions on his passes. He displays an amazing soccer IQ that allows him to read the game at a high level.

The dynamic duo have terrific complimentary players on either side of them in junior Josh Taboda and freshman Fernando Mancera.

"The play of that unit has been very good during this past week, and we feel it can and will get better as the season goes on," says Polovin.

"We didn't get a chance to see Mt. Carmel this week, but we heard they had a lot of talented players on its roster who could be dangerous if we allowed them to. But in that first 15-20 minutes, I thought we did a good job of keeping their chances to a minimum, while we enjoyed 80 percent of the possession and play on the other side of the field."

Watching two highly technical sides on the extra wide floor of the Barrington Community Stadium provided fans a special treat and allowed players who were able to take advantage of the space with some marvelous play during the first period.

"It was a lot of fun playing on a field as big as this one," agreed Limon, who, by in large, was the Sabres lone forward in Polovin's first 11, with outside midfielderChavez spending plenty of time running up and down the left side to give his club the look of having a second forward.

Edwin Peralta would be the first of several to test Mt. Carmel's fine keeper Sergio Valencia with his attempt at two minutes - but it was five minutes later when some lovely combination play exhibited just how terrific the Caravan senior actually is between the sticks.

That's when Magnana sent in a near-perfect diagonal early ball to Roland Martinez down the right side. The pass forced Valencia to venture far off his line in hopes of preventing a potential 1-v.-1 situation.

With Martinez and Valencia at full throttle, the two met on the ball. Martinez arrived a split second before his opponent and got his right foot on the ball and rattled the bar with his strike.

This exciting sequence brought cheers from both fans bases. It finally awoke the Caravan attack, which until then was unable to get the ball to its wonderful playmaker John Weber and his teammates Marcos Cid and Axel Gongora, who had been reduced to spectators in the first 10 minutes of play.

With this trio slowly getting into the game, the Caravan were able to muster a chance or two against Streamwood keeper Hector Alfaro.

A nifty heel pass from Weber to Damian Rincon called Alfaro into action, as did Charlie Chappetto shortly thereafter when Weber, Rincon and Giovanni Peat connected to create for their teammate.

Before and during this Caravan uprising, the Sabres were certainly not sitting back and watching the action.

Three offsides flags ended potential chances, as did strong work along the back from the Caravan with Emanuel Wiley and Nico Fox making their mark. Each was on hand to slow Martinez, Limon, Peralta and others who were set free by their teammates passes.

"We didn't know for sure how good Mt. Carmel was, but I thought we did really well attacking their defense and getting a lot of opportunities. We just had to finish a couple more of those chances," said Limon.

The Sabres continued to enjoy plenty of the play and possession going forward and did its best to include nearly all 10 field players in the various touches from touchline-to-touchline.

On the other side of the pitch, the clever work of Weber, Diego Fox and Gongora, in that order, brought the South Side soccer power close to the interior of the Streamwood box . But a sharp and ferocious tackle and interception by Taboda broke up the play.

The 35th-minute effort would quickly gave the Sabres the advantage going the other way. That led to a dangeorus tackle and yellow card booking of Cid.

Streamwood senior Bryan Mora, who was a solid force in the middle of the park all night, initiated the Limon goal when his inch-perfect free kick serve fell onto the foot of his teammate just to the left of Valencia.

Limons' cool one-timer beat the Caravan keeper.

"Bryan gave me a great ball. There was nothing else to do but shoot the ball," said Limon, who made it sound easier than it was given the enormity of the moment.

The Sabres coach was impressed.

"Just a great finish by Jesus," Polovin said. "It's just too bad we didn't finish a couple of the other chances we created. (We) have to get better at that going forward."

The Sabres could have done just that moments after the Limon strike.

Alejandro Morales picked out Peralta, whose ghost center channel run allowed him to latch onto a wonderful early ball just outside the six-yard box.

If not for the athletic Valencia charging off his line, the Sabres would have gone into the break with a two-goal advantage.

Rubio's fine retreat in the 45th minute allowed him to catch up to and parry away a potentially dangerous Gongora-Stanley Peat scoring chance for the Caravan. After a Weber free kick and save by Alfaro, the sky lit up and continued to do so until officials called it a night.

"I'm very happy for our guys,"said Polovin. "(This) was a nice early season accomplishment for all of them who worked and played hard this week, which included some difficult weather conditions that they managed to overcome.

"They know there's still a lot of work ahead of them, but that hasn't stopped any of them during training sessions and games.

"We finished third at this tournament a year ago, and made the jump one year later, which, I believe, should help us get a top three seed at the PepsiCo next weekend."

Streamwood travels to West Chicago on Wednesday before the start of the multi-bracketed tournament Saturday.The first appearance ever here at the Classic proved a successful one for the Caravan and its manager, Rolando Godinez, who was unavailable for comment during the long delay.

Godinez led his club to a regional title a year ago. The Caravan lost in a 3A sectional final to eventual third place trophy winner Bradley-Bourbonnais and the Markanich twins, both of which are playing at Northern Illinois this fall. Through three games, Nick led the team with two goals, and Anthony topped the Huskies with two assists.

The Caravan (3-2-0) will host DePaul on Tuesday, before going on the road two days later to St. Francis de Sales.